Partner Success Stories

Based in New York City, Seven Stories Press has a well-earned reputation
for bringing to independent publishing some of the most important voices in
contemporary fiction, poetry, and progressive politics. Its titles have been honored
with numerous awards, including the National Book Award for Poetry and the
Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Book of the Year in the Politics category.
Seven Stories has a full-time staff of 10 and publishes 30-40 books per season,
both in English and, under its Siete Cuentos Editorial imprint, in Spanish. Through
sublicenses with overseas colleagues, these books have been translated into and
published in virtually all languages around the globe.

Challenge

"It's become clear over
the last five years that the
channels through which
books are being sold are
changing, and people don't
buy books from bookstores
as much as they used to.
Anytime we can sell directly
from our site, it's great. We
receive the full revenue from
the sale, and our customers
know that by coming to
us, they're supporting
independent publishing."

"It's become clear over the last five years that the channels through which books
are being sold are changing, and people don't buy books from bookstores as much
as they used to,"says Lars Reilly, who manages technical and sales operations for
Seven Stories. "Anytime we can sell directly from our site, it's great. We receive the
full revenue from the sale, and our customers know that by coming to us, they're
supporting independent publishing."

Another top priority for Seven Stories is driving interest in its backlist titles.
Explains Reilly, "It's always our goal to sell these books, even beyond what we call
the 'perennial backlist' – books that continue to sell reliably over time, but simply in
smaller numbers. Selling three copies a year of a deeply buried backlist title is far
better than selling zero copies."

Solution

After hearing about the Google Books Partner Program through trade magazines
and its online catalog management company GiantChair, Seven Stories joined the
program in February 2005. With limited funds for marketing, Seven Stories works
hard to find smart, cost-effective ways to capture attention and reach its readership
online. Joining the free Partner Program "seemed like a good idea that could be
implemented for little to no cost."

The result, says Reilly, is that people are finding and buying a surprisingly wide range
of books, often clicking directly through to the Seven Stories website using the 'Buy
this book' links. "That's as close as you can get to landing them in a bookstore."

Many of these books, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb's Dark
Alliance, are backlist titles that Seven Stories wasn't expecting to sell. "Dark
Alliance has been out for years, and it's no longer available in bookstores,"explains
Reilly. "But someone recently published a book about the author, and people are
evidently searching for him online. Now we're selling three, four, five, sometimes
upwards of 10 copies a week directly from our site. These sales are all gravy to us."

Another title that's been getting a lot of page views in Google Books is Voices
of a People's History of the United States, a book by Howard Zinn and Arnold
Arnove that features the source material for Zinn's widely read People's History of
the United States. "Someone might be looking for the original book and stumble on
this one at the same time,"says Reilly. "We're seeing more sales, but even if people
don't buy the book, in the long run this kind of exposure can be just as good. People
are becoming aware of this book, and it's beginning to take off in academic circles."

In addition to joining the Partner Program, Seven Stories uses Google AdWords
so that people searching on Google see text ads for its books if they're relevant to
a particular search. The company also recently set up Google/Seven Stories cobranded
search on its website. "Our relationship with Google has been really great,
and really useful,"says Reilly.

Seven Stories currently has 200 titles in Google Books, and plans to continue
adding new books. Says Reilly, "Our goal, with the rare exception that an author
doesn't want their book up, is to have all of our books live on Google Books in
short order. And going forward, it will be every book as it goes to the printer."

About Google Books

Google Books enables publishers to promote their books on Google. Google scans the full text of participating publishers' titles so that Google users can see books that match the topics they are searching on. When users click on a book search result, they're taken to a Google-hosted web page displaying a scanned image of the relevant page from the book. Each page also contains multiple "Buy this Book" links, which enable users to purchase the book from online retailers. Users may also see contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on these pages. Publishers will receive a share of the revenue generated from ads appearing on their content.